Shaping the Future - Milken Institute

panelists
David Henderson is the Founder and Managing Director of XPV Capital Corp., an investment firm dedicated to investing
in high-growth companies capitalizing on the opportunities created by the “new water economy,” a concept he developed.
His experience includes negotiating partnerships with water multinationals, helping portfolio companies complete strategic
acquisitions and advising governments and regulators on water technology adoption strategies. Having done business in the
United States, China, South Korea, India and the European Union, he understands the complexities of building a successful
global water enterprise. Henderson is an advisor for the U.S. Strategic Water Initiative, Ontario Clean Water Initiative and
Imagine H2O. Prior to starting XPV Capital, he worked at the private merchant bank Kinghaven Capital Corp. (now VRG Capital),
where he was responsible for leading portfolio company strategic partnerships, M&A transactions and direct investments in
numerous industries. Henderson graduated from the Ryerson University School of Business in Toronto.
Irv Henderson is Vice President of Product Development for Yahoo Mobile and Local, leading global product
strategy and development for the company’s global, mobile services as well as local products across the PC and mobile
platforms. Henderson joined Yahoo in 2004 and led product development teams in the global distribution of mobile
communications products, including Mail and Messenger. At Yahoo, he co-invented the technology behind eight
patent applications in mobile messaging and mobile Web browsing. Prior to his current role at Yahoo, Henderson was
vice president of product development at Obopay, where he led the development of mobile payment applications and
platforms for distribution through financial insitutions and wireless carriers. Henderson also served as the director of
product management at Infospace Mobile, where he led product development for messaging and browsing applications.
He received a B.A. in physics and economics from Whittier College and an M.B.A. in finance from Cornell University.
Daniel Henry is CEO of NetSpend, the largest provider of reloadable prepaid debit cards in the United States. Henry
is a leader in the global payments industry, particularly for his pioneering efforts in emerging markets. Before joining
NetSpend, he was president and chief operating officer of Hungary’s Euronet Worldwide, a company he co-founded
in 1994 to bring the convenience of ATM transactions to the cash-based Central European community. When Henry
stepped down from his executive role in 2006, Euronet had revenues in excess of $800 million annually, was processing
more than 2 million daily payment transactions in 23 countries and employed more than 1,100 workers worldwide.
Henry received a B.S. from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Diane Hessan is President and CEO of Communispace, one of the fastest-growing social networking companies
in the country, “with a blue chip client list that would make a Madison Avenue giant jealous,” according to Advertising
Age. The company generates consumer insights for more than 100 major global brands via online communities, and
it boasts a 90 percent client retention rate with a string of awards for innovation. Both as a business executive and as
co-author of Customer-Centered Growth: Five Strategies for Building Competitive Advantage, Hessan has spent her 30-year
career helping companies become customer-focused. She sits on more than a dozen boards and was a recent recipient
of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. She is a graduate of Tufts University and Harvard Business School.
She is also the co-founder of The Sound Bytes, an a cappella group that sings about business.
James Heywood is Chairman and Co-Founder of PatientsLikeMe. An engineer, he entered the field of translational
research and medicine when his brother Stephen was diagnosed with ALS in 1998. PatientsLikeMe is a personalized
research and peer care platform that allows patients to share in-depth information on treatments, symptoms and
outcomes. In 1999, Heywood founded the ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI), the world’s first nonprofit
biotechnology company, where he served as CEO until 2007. Heywood was on Wired’s 2009 “Smart List” and Fast
Company’s “10 Most Creative People in Healthcare.” PatientsLikeMe was named one of “15 companies that will change
the world” by CNNMoney and ranked second on Fast Company’s list of innovative health-care companies. Heywood
and brother Stephen, who died in 2006, were the subjects of the Pulitzer-winning biography, His Brother’s Keeper and
the award-winning documentary “So Much So Fast.”
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